Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
The Clay football program is entering its second season under the direction of Derek Pennington, who hopes to see an improved offense behind a slew of returners at the skill positions.
“We feel like we're a little bit ahead right now just because the kids know the system compared to last year, when we were really in its infancy,” Pennington said. “Last year, we were kind of Spread 101. Now we’re getting to some more advanced stuff. Everything looks good though until you actually block guys, so we’ll see, but we’re excited.”
Clay will once again feature a challenging schedule. Last year, they opened on the road against Wapakoneta, and this year they’ll do so at home. Plus, they play Liberty-Benton and a challenging NLL Buckeye Division slate.
Pennington said it will be crucial to get off to a good start.
“But I’ve done this so long, I don’t project out,” he said. “We don’t know what injuries will occur or how our team's going to be until we start playing. I've had teams where I thought we could struggle and they've been really good. And then we've had teams on occasion where we thought we were going to be really good, and then they don’t end up where you thought.
“If I would have told you last year we were going to lose to Napoleon and beat Whitmer and Anthony Wayne, you probably would have told me I should be in a mental institution. We just play them one at a time at this point.”
The Eagles finished 6-5 overall last year, including a 3-2 record in the Buckeye Division, before falling to Brecksville-Broadview in the opening round of the playoffs. The team graduated 15 seniors, including inside linebackers Jonny Kamelesky and Collin Greenawalt, defensive lineman Corey Bobbs and Brodi Ostrander, who was named a First Team All-NLL selection at tight end. The team will also be without Justin Lajti, a Second Team All-NLL pick at offensive guard, due to injury.
“Those are some big losses, honestly,” Pennington said.
The team does return four all-conference players, though: Second Team All-NLL junior quarterback Landon Echelberry, as well as a trio of seniors in first team — center Augie Lohmeyer, second team wide receiver Max Morrison and second team safety Kyle Henneman.
Also back are two-way juniors Bryce Besgrove and Brannan Vargas, as well as senior Joey Donley. Besgrove and Donley should see time at running back. A strong wide receiver group includes Morrison, Jimmy Derr and JJ Medina. Lohmeyer is joined by Cash Mahr and Robert Stewart up front. Senior Ray Campos is back in the secondary.
The Eagles, who feature seven returning starters on offense, as well as six on defense, also feature some potential breakout players such as sophomore H-back Bryce Ostrander, the younger brother of Brodi, and Kyle O’Neill, a sophomore running back/linebacker.
“Our skill positions in the secondary, receiver, quarterback and running back are the strengths of our team,” Pennington said. “The question marks would be up front in terms of establishing who our offensive line and defensive line is going to be. We return a lot of the skill, and a lot of the skill is pretty good. Our skill players can match up with whoever we play.”
Pennington feels good about his entire quarterback room, led by Echelberry, who is a rare third-year varsity starter as a junior. He is one of the top college prospects in the state in both football and baseball.
“All the quarterbacks have a better grasp of what we're doing, and we'll be able to give them more decision making in terms of packaging concepts,” Pennington said. “We did a lot of that with Landon at the end of the year. We did a lot of it against Whitmer, where he could throw the ball into the boundary or to the field or run it depending on the look we were getting.
“The more they understand what we're trying to do and can read defenses and make good decisions, the more freedom I’ll give them. Landon is a unique kid because he’s going into his third year as a varsity starting quarterback. A lot of kids are playing their first year of varsity football as a junior. He’s a big, strong-armed kid, and he runs pretty well, too.”
Echelberry will be aided by a deep wideout room that features six or seven guys who could see time, including Liam Cody, who returns from injury.
“That group is potentially an exceptional one,” Pennington said. “It's just hard to get on the field as a wideout right now because there's no such thing as a six-wideout offense. We have to figure out who's going to play. But we're also trying to not play a ton of kids both ways. Sometimes we’re going to play a kid on one side of the ball because the other kid's playing the other side.”
Many of the key returners such as Echelberry, Besgrove and others are part of a talented junior class, and Pennington said the skill level of the junior class is comparable to some of the athletes he had in Michigan. That includes guys like Central Michigan running back Brock Townsend and Mason McKenzie, a quarterback who portaled to Boston College, where he could match up with former Clay standout quarterback Mason Heintschel and the Pitt Panthers this fall.
“That was an impressive backfield, but I do think Echelberry, Besgrove and those kids are certainly in that category,” Pennington said. “It depends on how they do their junior and senior years.”
Overall, with all the returning talent, Pennington hopes to see his team put more points on the board this fall.
“Offensively, we had some good games, but we were pretty inconsistent and sporadic last year,” he said. “The games we lost, we didn't score enough points. We have to be more consistent there. We averaged maybe 24 a game, which for my teams was the lowest total in about 10 years that I've averaged.
“We had a lot of young kids and we were playing a very tough schedule, but still we want to try to average high 20s or 30 points at least per game. There were games we did well, such as 29 against Whitmer and 28 against Anthony Wayne when we beat them. There were other games where we didn't score enough, though.”
